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>
4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from January
2013</title>
5 <description>Entries from January
2013</description>
6 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/
</link>
10 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint
</title>
11 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html
</guid>
13 <pubDate>Thu,
10 Jan
2013 20:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
14 <description><p
>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
15 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
16 Launcher and updated the Debian package
17 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile
">pymissile
</a
> to make
18 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
19 also added a
"Modaliases
" header to test it in the Debian archive and
20 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
21 plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
22 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
23 contribute.
<a href=
"http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/
">Upstream
</a
>
24 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
25 years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
26 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
27 bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
28 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
29 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git
">gitweb
30 view
</a
> or use
"<tt
>git clone
31 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git
</tt
>".
</p
>
36 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian
</title>
37 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</link>
38 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html
</guid>
39 <pubDate>Wed,
9 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
40 <description><p
>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
41 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
42 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
43 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
44 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
45 machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
46 Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
47 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
48 I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
49 yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
50 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.
</p
>
52 <p
>Some years ago, I proposed to
53 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg01206.html
">use
54 the discover subsystem to implement this
</a
>. The idea is fairly
59 <li
>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
60 starting when a user log in.
</li
>
62 <li
>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
63 hardware is inserted into the computer.
</li
>
65 <li
>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
66 database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
69 <li
>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
70 package, and make it easy to install it.
</li
>
74 <p
>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
75 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
76 discover database to find packages and
77 <a href=
"http://www.packagekit.org/
">PackageKit
</a
> to install
80 <p
>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
81 draft package is now checked into
82 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
83 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a
>. In the process, I updated the
84 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html
">discover-data
</a
>
85 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
86 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
87 2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
88 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html
">discover
</a
>
89 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
90 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
91 libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
92 version
2.1.2-
6 is now in experimental (didn
't upload it to unstable
93 because of the freeze).
</p
>
95 <p
>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
96 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
99 <p align=
"center
"><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
09-hw-autoinstall.png
"></p
>
101 <p
>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
102 install the proposed packages by pressing the
"Please install
103 program(s)
" button should to be implemented.
</p
>
105 <p
>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
106 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
107 from hardware to Debian packages. Check if
'discover-pkginstall -l
'
108 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
109 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
110 reportbug if it isn
't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
111 such mapping, please let me know.
</p
>
113 <p
>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
114 should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
115 the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
116 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
117 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
118 How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
119 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
120 popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
121 not be installed?
</p
>
123 <p
>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
124 please send me an email. :)
</p
>
129 <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian
</title>
130 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</link>
131 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html
</guid>
132 <pubDate>Wed,
2 Jan
2013 15:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
133 <description><p
>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
134 <a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
">LEGO Mindstorm
135 NXT
</a
>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
136 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
137 already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something
138 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
139 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%
23debian-lego
">#debian-lego
</a
> (server
140 irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the
141 Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software
142 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)
</p
>
144 <p
>Update
2012-
01-
03: A
145 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners
">project page
</a
>
146 including links to Lego related packages is now available.
</p
>
151 <title>Lenker for
2013-
01-
01</title>
152 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html
</link>
153 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2013_01_01.html
</guid>
154 <pubDate>Tue,
1 Jan
2013 09:
20:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
155 <description><p
>Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den
156 siste måneden.
</p
>
161 <a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article262047.ece
">Myter og
162 FUD om fri programvare
</a
> av min venn Christer Gundersen som
163 kommenterer noen av de påstandene som er spredt via Computerworld
164 Norge de siste månedene.
</li
>
166 <li
>BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens
167 leverandør) sitter på alt som trengs for å bruke BankID, men har
168 lovet å ikke bruke den unntatt på oppdrag fra deg. Det er greit nok
169 for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over
170 resultatet, men problematisk når det gjelder tilgang til
171 helseopplysninger og avtaleinngåelse med andre enn banken. Jeg
172 håper protestene brer om seg.
176 <li
>2012-
12-
11 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/BankID-blottlegger-helseopplysninger-
7067148.html
">BankID
177 blottlegger helseopplysninger
</a
></li
>
179 <li
>2012-
12-
07 <a href=
"http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/
1.9695027">-
180 Helseopplysningene ikke sikre med Bank-ID
</a
></li
>
183 <a href=
"https://www.bankid.no/Presse-og-nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/
2012/Papeker-alvorlige-men-kjente-utfordringer/
">Påpeker
184 alvorlige, men kjente utfordringer
</a
> er den offisielle
185 holdningen til de som lager BankID.
</li
>
188 <a href=
"http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/
3419-ntnu-researcher-warns-against-security-of-bank-id-password
">NTNU
189 Researcher Warns against Security of Bank ID Password
</a
>
193 <li
>2012-
12-
11 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Norske-elever-er-darligst-i-Europa-pa-algebra-
7066752.html
">Norske elever er dårligst i Europa på algebra
</a
>
196 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Realfagsdodaren-
7067173.html
">Realfagsdødaren
</a
>
199 <a href=
"http://www.bt.no/nyheter/innenriks/
112/--Forventningene-er-for-hoye-
2816450.html
">-
200 Noen må bli skuffet
</a
> - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de
201 prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.
</li
>
204 <a href=
"http://e24.no/jobb/kripos-ansatt-doemt-for-snoking-for-venn/
20208585">
205 Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn
</A
> - viser hvor svak
206 reaksjonen blir når politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon. En
207 forvarsel på konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll -
208 ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.
</li
>
211 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/
2012/
12/
14/kultur/debatt/kronikk/jul/ensomhet/
24838541/
">Å
212 smøre en forskjell
</a
> - om ensomhet og jul.
</li
>
215 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/n-krise-av-gangen_-takk-
7072452.html
">Én
216 krise av gangen, takk!
</a
>
220 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/NAV-Et-mangehodet-monster--
7072165.html
">NAV:
221 Et mangehodet monster
</a
></li
>
224 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/
2011/
01/
12/kultur/debatt/kronikk/personvern/
15027203/
">Pasienter
225 uten vern
</a
> - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og
226 andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.
</li
>
230 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Hvorfor-er-barnefamilier-fattige-
7073951.html
">Hvorfor
231 er barnefamilier fattige?
</a
></li
>
234 <a href=
"http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/spaltister/Den-skjulte-minoriteten--konservative-kristne-i-Norge-
7075518.html
">Den
235 skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge
</a
> - kronikk av
236 Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten
</li
>
239 <a href=
"http://deltemeninger.no/-/bulletin/show/
303429_folkebiblioteket-
2-
0?ref=checkpoint
">Folkebiblioteket
240 2.0</a
> - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med
241 Olav Torvund.
</li
>
245 <p
>Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!
</p
>